College of Arts & Sciences
Department of Performing Arts
Department of Performing Arts
Announcements

Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program Announces 2010-11 A Season Named Desire

Events include expansive Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival, mainstage productions bookended by Lorca’s Blood Wedding and world premiere adaptation of Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and residencies with renowned playwrights Moises Kaufman and Heather Raffo

September 7, 2010 — Washington, D.C. — With a season including productions of classics, vital new works from around the world, and professional and interdisciplinary partnership projects, the Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program presents A Season Named Desire at the Davis Performing Arts Center, located on GU’s main campus in Washington, D.C. Throughout the spring, events celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of American master Tennessee Williams will be offered in partnership with GU’s American Studies Program and Arena Stage.

Davis Center Artistic Director Derek Goldman says, “Throughout the year we will engage work that explores and embodies desire in all its forms, bringing to the fore issues of sexuality, violence and trauma, race and justice, history and the American South, and tolerance. As we explore a remarkable array of plays, fiction, poetry, film scripts, memoirs and letters, the theme of desire emerges in our season not only as content — an expression of our wishes and dreams, yearnings and appetites — but also as a living acknowledgement of the legacy of Tennessee Williams, a writer who inspires us to experiment and take risks, to find new expressive forms, and to not settle for the tried and true. This sense of experimentation and risk-taking, rooted in rigor and collaboration, is a hallmark of our work at Georgetown — in our classrooms and on our stages.”

MAINSTAGE PRODUCTIONS

  • The four faculty-directed mainstage productions in A Season Named Desire begin with Federico Garcia Lorca’s “Blood Wedding” (Oct. 14-23, full schedule and showtimes below), an elemental reimagining of the classic tragedy as translated by Langston Hughes, directed by Professor Nadia Mahdi.
  • The Glass Menagerie Project (Feb. 24-March 27), directed by Professor Derek Goldman, will feature a production of this classic haunting play, surrounded by other events including readings, adapted work from Williams’ fiction (including Portrait of a Girl in Glass), letters, screenplays, and memoirs, as well as an interactive multimedia installation which uses the scenic world of The Glass Menagerie as a sensory window into Williams’ life and work. Part of the Tenn Cent Fest, the show and surrounding events will be presented at Georgetown and then in late Spring at the new Mead Center for American Theater as part of GU’s partnership with Arena Stage.
  • Also part of the Tenn Cent Fest, Williams’ Suddenly, Last Summer (April 7-16) will be directed by Professor Maya E. Roth, Theater and Performance Studies Program Director. The riveting American gothic classic probes the violence of human nature and homophobia with charismatic characters and poetic force. At selected performances, it will be paired with resonant performance excerpts from playwright Adrienne Kennedy and from Williams’ own writings on memory and yearning.
  • In a world premiere adaptation, Professor Natsu Onoda Power transforms Michael Pollan’s best-selling book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” (July 27–30) into an unconventional and powerful performance that engages the question: “What should we have for dinner?” — a quandary which Pollan says has confronted us since man discovered fire, and the answer to which may well determine our very survival as a species.

SPECIAL EVENTS

The season’s special events also highlight Georgetown’s Theater and Performance Studies’ commitment to work that engages community, politics, and social justice – all deeply integrated with the Program’s curricular offerings.

  • Theater and Performance Studies Program Senior Thesis Projects Emblematic of its steadfast support for student-written and directed work, the Program will stage two Senior Thesis Projects by remarkable undergraduates this season:
    • Watermelon Season (Dec. 3 and 4), conceived, adapted, and directed by Courtney Ulrich (COL ‘11) and advised by Professor Derek Goldman, tackles urgent questions surrounding immigration law and policy, drawing from contemporary accounts and ethnographic research of the migrant workers in our fruit and vegetable fields today, as well as accounts of injustice through history from Steinbeck, Agee, and others.
    • The Orphan Play (Jan. 21 and 22) written, conceived and adapted by Miranda Hall (COL ‘11) and directed and advised by Professor Maya E. Roth, examines who has the right to motherhood in America, and who has the right to citizenship, inspired by Linda Gordon’s book The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction and contemporary stories.
  • Belgrade-based experimental theater company DAH Teatar (dah means “breath”), for a residency which will include open workshops with students and two of their most acclaimed and groundbreaking productions: The Story of Tea (Oct. 1), a variation on a theme of Chekhov’s Three Sisters exploring the meaning of memory in relation to harsh truth and Crossing the Line (Oct. 2), based on women’s authentic testimonies about wars that took place on the former republic of Yugoslavia’s soil from 1991–1999.
  • In celebration of National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11, the Theater and Performance Studies Program and GU’s LGBTQ Resource Center will co-present a staged reading of Dear Harvey, a tribute play to Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to a major public office in the United States. Drawn from more than 30 interviews conducted by Patricia Loughrey, the work weaves together the personal and political writings of Milk with stories from the people he knew and the lives he changed. Directed by Professor Susan Lynskey, the reading will feature top DC professional actors, GU faculty, alumni, and students.
  • An interactive multimedia work combining live and video-game elements, The Underpass (Nov. 19 and 20) by Christine Evans is inspired by the increasing use of immersive, virtual-reality and video game technology — both to train U.S. soldiers for battle and to rehabilitate those suffering post-traumatic stress disorder upon their return. Directed by Joseph Megel, this workshop production has most recently been developed with American Repertory Theater, and continues its evolution here at Georgetown with intensive student involvement.

ARENA STAGE PARTNERSHIP

Now in the fifth year of their partnership, the Theater and Performance Studies Program and Arena Stage, one of the nation’s leading regional theaters, will collaborate on numerous special events in addition to the co-production of The Glass Menagerie Project at GU and at the new Mead Center for American Theater.

  • Directed by David Dower, a staged reading of Two Men of Florence (Sept. 27) written by Richard Goodwin, a speechwriter for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, illuminates the intertwined lives of Galileo and Pope Urban VIII in 17th-century Florence.
  • Helping to kick off Williams Centennial events, Tectonic Theater Project and celebrated playwright/director Moises Kaufman (Laramie Project, Gross Indecency) return to Georgetown for a workshop production of Kaufman’s adaptation of Williams’ sexually charged potboiler One Arm (Dec. 18 and 19). Kaufman’s play 33 Variations was also workshopped at Georgetown before its acclaimed runs at Arena Stage and then on Broadway, and this residency serves as a prelude to One Arm’s New York premiere this coming spring. Kaufman will return as a featured participant in the Williams’ Centennial Weekend Festivities (March 24–27).
  • Heather Raffo, playwright and actress of the award-winning one-woman show 9 Parts of Desire, will also return to Georgetown for a residency in the Davis Center this February. In addition to her work with Theater & Performance Studies Program classes, Raffo will participate in interdisciplinary forums, including a public Q&A linked to the development of her new work about Iraq’s maqam musical culture as a window into the ghosts of the country’s past and present, and its search for human rights.

TENN CENT FEST

Throughout the spring of 2011, the Davis Performing Arts Center and the Theater and Performance Studies Program at Georgetown University, in partnership with the American Studies Program and Arena Stage, host the Tenn Cent Fest, an expansive celebration of the indelible legacy of work of this American master on the occasion of his 100th birthday. Including the fully staged productions of The Glass Menagerie and Suddenly, Last Summer, the festival also features readings and workshops of work by Willliams, and additional contributions from those whom he has influenced and those who have influenced him. Material will be drawn from the celebrated plays and the obscure and overlooked ones, as well as from short stories, memoirs, letters, essays, screenplays, biographies, parodies, poetry, and musical treatments.

On the Centennial Weekend (March 24–27), a diverse array of many of the world’s leading writers, directors, scholars, and thinkers converge with Georgetown students and members of the campus and DC communities for a major public celebration. The weekend will feature three days of wall-to-wall events, kicking off with American Studies’ annual Richardson Lecture, conceived as a performative event with contributions from an array of acclaimed artists and scholars, and continuing with performances, public talks, discussions, readings, a state-of-the-art multimedia exhibit, and much more. Visit http://performingarts.georgetown.edu for updates on Festival programs and guest artists. The Festival is produced in partnership with Georgetown’s American Studies Program and generously supported by C74.

FLEX PASS

The Theater and Performance Studies Program offers a Flex Pass for the 2010–11 season: good for four tickets to any combination of Theater and Performance Studies Program mainstage shows (Blood Wedding; The Glass Menagerie; Suddenly, Last Summer; The Omnivore’s Dilemma). Dates are subject to availability and tickets must be reserved 24 hours in advance of a desired show. Flex Passes are $50 for the general public (up to 30% savings), $40 for faculty/staff/alumni/senior (up to 33% savings) and $20 for Georgetown University students (up to 50% savings). More information is available at http://performingarts.georgetown.edu, and single ticket prices are included in the listings below.

About Georgetown University’s Theater and Performance Studies Program
Part of Georgetown University’s Department of Performing Arts, the Theater & Performance Studies Program integrates creative and critical inquiry, emphasizing artistic excellence, interdisciplinary learning, socially engaged performance, and the spirit of collaboration. With a dynamic major in Theater & Performance Studies, the Program features a nationally recognized faculty, including leading scholar/artists, and many of the region’s leading professional theater practitioners. One of the country’s only undergraduate programs in Theater & Performance Studies, this fast-growing program has rapidly attracted significant national attention for its distinctive curriculum, which integrates the political and international character of Georgetown, a commitment to social justice, and high-quality, cutting-edge student production seasons. The Theater & Performance Studies Program provides unique focus on adapting, devising and developing new work, theater as social change, cross-cultural performance studies, solo and multimedia performance, ensemble and physical theater, and innovative approaches to design and technology as well as playwriting, directing, dramaturgy, and more. Our major prepares students to go on in the arts, education, public service, and cultural criticism.

A partial and rapidly growing list of theatrical luminaries who have had sustained contact with Georgetown students in the Davis Center includes: Belarus Free Theatre, Theodore Bikel, Irina Brown, The Civilians, Dan Conway, Nilo Cruz, Peter DiMuro, David Dower, Joe Dowling, Olympia Dukakis, David Edgar, Rick Foucheux, Michael Friedman, Marcus Gardley, Ed Gero, Nadine George-Graves, Danny Hoch, David Henry Hwang, Moises Kaufman, Josh Kornbluth, Liz Lerman, Emily Mann, David Muse, Sister Helen Prejean, Heather Raffo, Clint Ramos, Tim Raphael, Stephen Richard, Michael Rohd, Ari Roth, Shannon Scrofano, Christopher Sivertsen, Molly Smith, Tony Taccone, Irina and Paata Tsikurishvili, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Charles Randolph Wright, Karen Zacarias, and Mary Zimmerman.

About the Davis Performing Arts Center
The Royden B. Davis, S.J. Performing Arts Center opened in November 2005 as the only building in Georgetown history designed specifically for arts education. This beautiful $28 million state-of-the-art facility in the center of campus is the academic home to the Theater & Performance Studies Program as well as to two state of the art theatre spaces — the 236-seat proscenium Gonda Theatre and the black box Devine Studio Theatre. The Davis Center provides classroom research and production learning laboratories for hundreds of students at Georgetown every semester, including for first-rate student-produced theater from Black Theatre Ensemble, Mask and Bauble, and Nomadic Theatre, as well as a wide array of music and dance groups in the Department of Performing Arts. In addition, the Davis Center is a hub for interdisciplinary exchange on and off campus, as well as with the wider D.C. community, through our summer festival productions and partnership with Arena Stage, as well as collaborations with Synetic Theater, Sojourn Theater, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, American Opera Theater, D.C. public schools, and many other artistic, scholarly, activist, social service, and cultural groups. The Davis Center Season unfolds in intimate dialogue with the Program’s curricular offerings. In addition to mainstage productions in the Gonda and Devine Theatres, the Program sponsors numerous workshops, readings, master classes, symposia, and guest lectures, placing students from the entire Georgetown community in regular contact with leading professionals from the U.S. and beyond.

Chronological Theater and Performance Studies Program events

Monday, September 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Two Men of Florence
A staged reading
By Richard Goodwin
Directed by David Dower
Written by a speechwriter for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, Two Men of Florence illuminates the intertwined lives of Galileo and Pope Urban VIII in 17th-century Florence. The two younger men’s mutual respect shifts as Galileo’s theories of the earth’s rotation and movement gain momentum. This play grapples with the battle between discovery and faith: Can people change their understanding of the world? If so, how? This event is part of Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program’s partnership with Arena Stage.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FREE

 

DAH Teatar
Friday, October 1 at 8 p.m. / The Story of Tea
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DEVINE STUDIO THEATRE
Saturday, October 2 at 8 p.m. / Crossing the Line
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
Building on our ongoing commitment to engaging and presenting vital, cutting-edge performance from around the world (as in last year’s residency with Belarus Free Theater), we are proud to welcome to Georgetown’s campus the Belgrade-based experimental theater company DAH Teatar (“dah” means “breath”), for a residency which will include two of their most acclaimed and groundbreaking productions, as well as open workshops with students. Founded in 1991 during great political turmoil, this collective of Serb theater artists creates work that is at once acutely personal and profoundly political. DAH first performed outdoors in the center of the city to protest policies of Slobodan Milosevic at a time when it was forbidden to even mention the war. In 2007, they received the Otto Award for Political Theatre and the New York Times has written about the “poignant intensity” of their aesthetics. The Story of Tea is a variation on a theme of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, exploring the meaning of memory in relation to harsh truth. Crossing the Line is based on women’s authentic testimonies about wars that took place on the former republic of Yugoslavia’s soil from 1991-1999.
$20 GENERAL / $15 FACULTY, STAFF, SENIOR (65 OR OLDER) / $5 STUDENT

 

Monday, October 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Dear Harvey
A staged reading
By Patricia Loughrey
Directed by Professor Susan Lynskey
Featuring a cast of top DC professional actors, Georgetown faculty, alumni, and students
Performed in celebration of National Coming Out Day, Dear Harvey is a tribute play to Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to a major public office in the United States. Drawn from more than 30 interviews, the work weaves together the personal and political writings of Milk with stories from the people he knew and the lives he changed, painting a portrait of a leader and a vision for equality. Dear Harvey celebrates the stories not often found in history books: stories that reach beyond fear and stereotyping to honor the positive contributions of the members of our LGBTQ community. This event is presented in partnership with GU’S LGBTQ Resource Center.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
$5 GENERAL

Thursday-Saturday, October 14-16, 2010 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, October 17, 2010 at 2 p.m.
Wednesday-Saturday, October 20-23, 2010 at 8 p.m.
Blood Wedding
By Federico García Lorca
Based on the translation by Langston Hughes
Directed by Professor Nadia Mahdi
In this elemental reimagining of a classic tragedy, new love is celebrated, an old passion is rekindled, and lovers desperately flee through a moonlit forest where supernatural forces vie for control. Lorca’s sensuous and deeply conflicted exploration of desire, rebellion, and retribution comes to life in this ensemble-driven production based on the Langston Hughes translation.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DEVINE STUDIO THEATRE
FRI/SAT EVENING ONLY: $18 GENERAL / $15 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR / $10 STUDENT
ALL OTHER PERFORMANCES: $15 GENERAL / $12 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR / $ 7 STUDENT

 

Friday and Saturday, November 19 and 20 at 8 p.m.
The Underpass
A workshop production
By Christine Evans
Directed by Joseph Megel
Interactive video design by Jared Mezzocchi
A ghost story for the digital war age, The Underpass is an interactive multimedia work combining live and video-game elements inspired by the increasing use of immersive, virtual-reality and video game technology — both to train U.S. soldiers for battle and to rehabilitate those suffering post-traumatic stress disorder upon their return. The Underpass pits the cyclic structure of both video games and traumatic memory against the struggle of its protagonist Michael, a head-injured Iraq war veteran, to break these cycles and move on. The piece has most recently been developed and workshopped with American Repertory Theater, and continues its development here at Georgetown with intensive student involvement, culminating in a remarkable multi-media performance of a groundbreaking work-in-progress.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
$10 GENERAL / FREE STUDENT

 

Friday and Saturday, December 3 and 4, 2010 at 8 p.m.
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY THEATER AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM – SENIOR THESIS PROJECT
Watermelon Season
Conceived, Adapted, and Directed by Courtney Ulrich (COL ‘11)
Advised by Professor Derek Goldman
Drawing from contemporary accounts and ethnographic research of the migrant workers in our fields today, as well as accounts of injustice through history from Steinbeck, Agee, and others, Watermelon Season is an exploration of the displaced, hard-working people toiling in America’s fruit and vegetable fields. Engaging urgent questions surrounding immigration law and policy, Watermelon Season depicts a troubling and enduring tendency to devalue the very workers upon whom we depend.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DEVINE STUDIO THEATRE
$5 GENERAL

 

Saturday, December 18, 2010 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, December 19, 2010 at 7 p.m.
One Arm
By Tennessee Williams
Adapted and directed by Moises Kaufman
We are thrilled to kick off our season of Tennessee Williams events by welcoming back Tectonic Theater Project and celebrated playwright/director Moises Kaufman (Laramie Project, Gross Indecency), whose play 33 Variations was workshopped at Georgetown before its acclaimed runs at Arena Stage and then on Broadway. This workshop of Kaufman’s adaptation of Williams’ sexually charged potboiler One Arm (which premiered at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago), is in advance of its New York premiere this coming Spring. Kaufman will return in the Spring as a featured participant in our Williams’ Centennial Weekend Festivities (March 24–27). This event is part of Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program’s partnership with Arena Stage.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
$10 GENERAL ADMISSION / FREE STUDENT

 

Friday and Saturday, January 21 and 22, 2011 at 8 p.m.
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY THEATER AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM – SENIOR THESIS PROJECT
The Orphan Play
Written, Conceived and Adapted by Miranda Hall (COL ‘11)
Directed and Advised by Professor Maya E. Roth
Haunted by conflicts of parenthood and race, The Orphan Play juxtaposes the plight of a contemporary Arizonan family with stories from a small Arizona mining town in the early 20th century. Weaving together tales of birth, adoption, kidnapping, and feud, the play examines who has the right to motherhood in America, and who has the right to citizenship. Inspired by Linda Gordon’s book The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction and stories from our current historical moment, this play launches a cross-cultural ballet of history, dreams, and family, examining the relationship of parenthood and immigration in the fabric of American identity.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
$5 GENERAL

 

Thursday-Saturday, February 24-26 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, February 27 at 2 p.m.
Thursday-Saturday, March 17-19 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 20 at 2 p.m.
Wednesday-Sunday, March 23-27 (times TBA due to festival programming)
The Glass Menagerie Project
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Professor Derek Goldman
This fresh re-envisioning of Williams’ legendary masterpiece, his most autobiographical play, is presented as part of our Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival. Featuring an artistic team comprised of Georgetown students, young alumni, and faculty, including Professor Sarah Marshall as Amanda Wingfield, the production of this haunting memory play, filled with fragility and stifled yearning, is the centerpiece of The Glass Menagerie Project. The project’s diverse range of events will include readings, adapted work from Williams’ fiction (including Portrait of a Girl in Glass), letters, screenplays, and memoirs, as well as an interactive multimedia installation which uses the scenic world of The Glass Menagerie as an embodied, sensory window into Williams’ life and work. The production and surrounding events are presented at Georgetown and then in May at the new Mead Center for American Theater as part of GU’s partnership with Arena Stage.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FRI/SAT EVENING ONLY: $18 GENERAL / $15 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR / $10 STUDENT
ALL OTHER PERFORMANCES: $15 GENERAL / $12 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR / $ 7 STUDENT
Tenn Cent Fest is produced in partnership with Georgetown’s American Studies Program and C74.

 

Thursday-Saturday, April 7-9, 2011 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 2 p.m.
Thursday and Friday, April 14 and 15, 2011 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 2 and 8 p.m.
Suddenly, Last Summer
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Professor Maya E. Roth
This riveting American gothic classic unfolds as a shocking mystery, probing the haunting death of a poet visiting Europe with his cousin, a young woman now charged as being insane. Creative and destructive forces collide in Williams’ controversial, expressionistic play which probes the violence of human nature and homophobia with charismatic characters and poetic force. Presented as part of our Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival (Tenn Cent Fest) and, at selected performances, paired with resonant performance excerpts from playwright Adrienne Kennedy and from Williams’ own writings on memory and yearning.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DEVINE STUDIO THEATRE
FRI/SAT EVENING ONLY: $18 GENERAL / $15 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR / $10 STUDENT
ALL OTHER PERFORMANCES: $15 GENERAL / $12 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR / $ 7 STUDENT
Tenn Cent Fest is produced in partnership with Georgetown’s American Studies Program and C74.

 

July 27-30, 2011 (Times TBA)
The Omnivore’s Dilemma
World premiere adaptation
Based on the book by Michael Pollan
Written, Conceived, and Directed by Natsu Onoda Power
Professor Natsu Onoda Power (Madness & Civilization, Trees and Ghosts) once again brings her singular vision
as an adapter, director and designer to transform a powerful non-fiction text into an unconventional and memorable performative event. This ensemble-based stage adaptation of Michael Pollan’s best-selling book moves from the corn fields of Iowa, to a small organic farm in Virginia, to America’s dinner tables, grocery stores, and fast-food emporiums. The production engages the question: “What should we have for dinner?” — a quandary which Pollan says has confronted us since man discovered fire, and the answer to which may well determine our very survival as a species.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FRI/SAT EVENING ONLY: $18 GENERAL / $15 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR / $10 STUDENT
ALL OTHER PERFORMANCES: $15 GENERAL / $12 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR / $ 7 STUDENT

https://performingarts.georgetown.edu/events-and-tickets
(202) 687-ARTS (2787)